Michael Angelo Fratino

Michael Angelo Fratino has been teaching at SUNY Plattsburgh since 2002, where he teaches two sections of MUS 293 Guitar Class, directs the guitar ensemble, and teaches a studio of private students. He is building the Plattsburgh guitar program into its own entity by having the guitarists and guitar ensembles give a public performance in Krinovitz Recital Hall as a unit every semester. He promotes all styles of guitar playing, including popular, jazz, classical, rock, and contemporary guitar techniques. He also encourages students to find their own voices by catering the program to suit and exploit each individual’s technical abilities.

As a musician, Michael Angelo Fratino is engaged in many projects at the moment — actively performing, often at SUNY Plattsburgh, in town, or back home in Montreal, Quebec. He has been part of the underground electronic music scene (electro acoustic/dance music) in Montreal for the past five years with CAPSULE, a group which played the MUTEK festival in 2002, a major music festival in Montreal. He is currently forming a new project called FIREGODS which is more instrumentally oriented with progressive rock overtones. Fratino also performs with a classical/acoustic guitar duo which will be making its debut in the very near future, with repertoire spanning world music and jazz. He has studied with several major composers and guitarists, Leo Brouwer, Roland Dyens, Ricardo Cobo, and Bruce Holzman, to name a few.